


hold on to me (cause i'm a little unsteady)

by ceciwrites



Series: My SHAUM Fics [2]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV), The Shadowhunter Chronicles - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Ice Skating, M/M, Pre-Relationship, is there anything magnus bane can't do, lit!nerd alec makes an appearance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-12
Updated: 2017-07-12
Packaged: 2018-12-01 09:28:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,377
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11483517
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ceciwrites/pseuds/ceciwrites
Summary: Alec works at the local ice rink where upcoming top figure skater Magnus practises his routines. But what happens to their friendship when they take their little moments of cafeteria small talk to the ice?





	hold on to me (cause i'm a little unsteady)

**Author's Note:**

> this is written for [SHAUMondays](https://shadowhuntersaumondays.tumblr.com/) week 7: space au - yes it's super late but you know
> 
> the title is from 'unsteady' by x ambassadors
> 
> thank you so much to elle ([ao3](http://archiveofourown.org/users/magnusragnor)/[tumblr](https://magnusragnor.tumblr.com/)) and charl ([ao3](http://archiveofourown.org/users/ohprongs)/[tumblr](http://lightwoodlesbians.tumblr.com/)) for beta'ing this!!! i love you guys so much<3

The only thing filling the air of the small cafeteria above the ice rink - apart from the smell of the coffee that’s currently brewing - is the occasional sound of pages being turned. It’s a regular Tuesday, a little after noon, and the only person Alec has seen during his shift is Luke, who’d come by to check that everything was running smoothly about an hour earlier.

It’s not really a surprise, though, since not that many people go ice skating this early on a weekday, apart from the occasional group of school kids who visit every now and then. 

Really, there’s no reason for anyone to be manning the cafeteria at this hour, but someone has to keep an eye on the place when it’s open for visitors. This way, Luke explained to him, Alec gets to do his reading for uni while earning some money, and Luke gets to do his paperwork and have meetings without having to leave his office in the middle of everything to take care of customers.

Some would say it’s a win/win situation. And it is. But really, Alec knows that he’s extremely lucky to have a job, even if it means dealing with 30 middle schoolers a few times a week. 

The real reason, however, that Alec loves his job isn’t the fact that it’s easy money. It’s not that he has time to do his homework or the fact that Luke is the nicest boss in the world. Neither is it the free coffee. No, Alec’s absolute favourite thing about going to work is Magnus. 

Magnus, the muscular, broad-shouldered figure skater who’s well on his way to becoming a world class. Magnus, who comes in every single day to practice his routines. Magnus, who mesmerises Alec with his fluid moves. Magnus, who always stops by the cafeteria to chat with Alec when he gets to the arena. Magnus, who Alec is absolutely head over heels for.

Magnus, who just walked in the door with his bag slung over his shoulder and a bright smile on his face. 

Alec tries not to stare as Magnus makes his way to Luke’s office and instead concentrates on the mildly boring text he’s supposed to be reading. It’s hard though - concentrating, that is - when he knows Magnus will be in the cafeteria in just a few moments.

He looks down at his book that is resting on the countertop, determined to get at least some reading done. But, sure enough, not even half a page later Alec’s attention is derailed by a light knocking sound. At this point, he doesn’t even try to hide the smile on his face when he looks up. 

“Hey, Magnus.”

“Hello, handsome,” Magnus says. “It’s good to see you.” Magnus folds his arms in front of him as he leans against the counter, his face only about a foot away from Alec’s. “Still reading Shakespeare?” 

It takes a moment for Alec to register the question, but who can really blame him when Magnus is standing so close and his henley is so tight around his arms that Alec can almost see his muscles moving underneath it? When he realises that he’s been staring, he looks down at the book for a second, a touch embarrassed that Magnus might have caught him.

“No, sadly we’ve moved on to romanticism,” he says, a slightly exaggerated hopeless expression painted on his face. Magnus laughs, making the butterflies in Alec’s stomach go wild. 

“Well,” Magnus says, trailing a couple of fingers along the edge of the page Alec has been reading, before settling his hand over Alec’s on the countertop beside the book, “as interesting as that sounds, I’m afraid I have to go.”

“Yeah, no, no, of course, I - I -” Alec stops when he feels Magnus squeeze his hand lightly, too distracted by the warmth spreading through his body to form a coherent sentence. 

His eyes are drawn to where Magnus’ long, ring clad fingers cover his, taking a moment to collect his thoughts before looking up at him and continuing: “I heard you’ve got a big competition coming up, and I wouldn’t wanna distract you from that.”

For a short moment, neither of them moves. There’s something sweet hanging in the air between them as Magnus offers him a soft smile before heading towards the stairs leading down to the rink itself. 

In the next two hours, Alec manages to finish the chapter he had been reading earlier, but it’d be a lie to say that his attention hasn’t been stolen by Magnus more than a couple of times. Really, it’s both a blessing and a curse that Alec has a full view of the rink from where he’s sitting. 

He’s probably been observing the other man dancing around the ice for half an hour when his thoughts are interrupted. Usually, Magnus has long since left by the time Alec’s shift is over, which is why Alec’s more than a little confused to see Simon, all ready to start his own shift. Alec’s not going to complain, though, and quickly packs up his things.

After his shift, Alec normally heads back to the dorms unless he’s got afternoon classes, but today something makes him stop before he reaches the main entrance. He looks down at Magnus, who’s still practising, and before he can so much as think about it, he turns on his heel and makes his way to the ice rink instead. 

As he walks down the stairs, he’s met with the sound of a song playing quietly from the speakers. The atmosphere is peaceful, despite the fact that Magnus has been repeating the same jump for the past ten minutes. He seems to get more and more frustrated with himself as the minutes go by, and Alec wonders for a moment if it would be better if he had left instead. 

It only takes a few moments for his worries to be squashed; an exhausted smile spreading across Magnus’ lips when he sees Alec. In just a few seconds, he’s made his way to the edge of the rink, skating to where Alec is standing.

"Alexander!" The surprise is evident in Magnus’ face as he greets Alec, not used to getting visits from the younger man during practice.

"What are you still doing here?" Alec asks. It doesn't sound like an accusation, per say, but he is quick to correct himself before his utterance can be interpreted in the wrong way. "I mean, you're usually only here for an hour or so, and it's been more than two hours already."

There’s a bit of concern hidden in his voice when he says it, which makes Magnus shake his head as he lets out a soft laugh.

"Yeah," he looks over his shoulder the spot where he had been practising only moments before, "I just have a few things I’m supposed to perfect before Friday."

Magnus sighs, looking back at Alec with a defeated expression. "I should probably call it a day, though... unless I wanna fall and injure myself because I'm too overworked to concentrate." There’s a moment of silence before: “Unless…”

The mischief is reflected in his eyes as they flicker back and forth between Alec and the rink. When he doesn’t continue, Alec cocks his head to the side, brows raised in question. 

“Unless, what?”

“Unless you wanna join me.”

Alec knows his eyes must be comically wide as he stares at Magnus. At first, he’s sure it’s a joke, but Magnus just keeps looking at him as if he’s waiting for an answer.

Truth is, Alec has thought about this more times than he’d like to admit. He has only been ice skating a few times in his life, and he isn’t anywhere near good at it. Hell, he’s sure he’s gonna look like a fool in comparison to Magnus, but he’s willing to sacrifice his dignity to spend time with the man who’s still currently looking at him, waiting for him to answer.

“Okay.”

“Okay?” It comes out more as a soft laugh than an actual question.

“Yeah, yeah… just let me go get some skates.”

It takes him a while to find a pair that fits, and he has to spend half of that time listening to Simon asking questions and making suggestive comments about him ice skating with Magnus. As if the fact isn’t already making his brain want to explode. 

Ten minutes later, he’s discarded his leather jacket on one of the many seats, he’s got his skates on, and for a moment he thinks that this won’t go so bad. That is until he places his foot on the ice and he feels almost like Bambi.

Okay, maybe that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but he swears he wasn’t this bad the last time he tried this.

He’s gotten less than ten feet onto the ice when he feels himself starting to wobble, but before he can even entertain the possibility of falling over, there a steadying hand on back, another one gripping one of his hands in support. 

“I got you.”

Shit. When he looks up from his still unsteady feet, Magnus is much closer than he had expected. 

Alec feels the blush that’s spreading across his cheek and down his neck, but he doesn’t look away. Magnus sends him a reassuring smile, and the kind look in his dark brown eyes makes Alec feel more at ease.

For the next hour or so, they skate around the rink. It’s not as difficult as Alec had first thought, but that doesn’t mean he’s good enough to keep from falling on his ass a couple of times, and being very close a dozen times as well.

But Magnus doesn’t laugh. Magnus never laughs at him, like Alec knows Jace would have done. Magnus simply makes sure that he isn’t hurt, and reminds him that Magnus himself wasn’t any better the first couple of times he went ice skating. 

So Alec isn't the best ice skater, but he's learning, and after a while, Magnus deems him good enough to go the entire length of the rink by himself. So that's what he's doing, Magnus waiting for him at the other end. 

It turns out that Alec is good enough to cross the ice alone, and the way Magnus is beaming at him makes his heart flutter in his chest. It also makes him a bit overconfident. He skates faster as he approaches the other man and it's too late to slow down when he realises that he doesn't actually know how to do exactly that - slow down.

Alec is sure the panic he feels must be showing on his face but Magnus slides in front of him, wrapping his arms around Alec’s waist as if to catch him before he can run straight into the boards and hurt himself.

However, it turns out that even though Magnus is almost as tall as Alec, somewhat broader, and definitely much more secure on the ice, he still isn’t able to keep them both on their feet. So before Alec can thank Magnus for saving him, they are both lying on the ice, Magnus on his back, arms still around Alec, who’s had a softer landing. On top of Magnus.

“Shit, Magnus, I’m sorry.” Alec is already on his knees, leaning over Magnus, trying to find out whether or not he’s hurt. Not entirely sure where to put his hands, they end up awkwardly hovering over Magnus, as Alec’s mind starts to think up worst case scenarios. 

He doesn’t have time to worry too much because Magnus starts laughing, his whole body shaking where he’s lying underneath Alec. 

“You really know how to sweep a guy off his feet, don’t you?” Magnus asks once he’s calmed down a bit, and Alec can’t help but smile even as he feels the blush spreading across his cheeks. 

He wants to say something, make some cheeky or sarcastic reply, but the way Magnus looks right now, eyes shining from laughing, hair a little ruffled from falling to the ground, a wide smile on his face as he looks up at Alec, is all so very distracting, and Alec finds himself lost for words.

So instead, he settles for helping Magnus up, as well as he can, given the fact that Magnus’ balance on the ice is still a lot better than Alec’s.

Magnus is still smiling at him when they leave the rink a few minutes later, and for some reason, it sparks a hope inside Alec. A hope that maybe Magnus enjoys Alec’s company just as much as Alec enjoys his. And Alec has been looking for an excuse to ask out Magnus for what feels like forever.

“Do you maybe wanna go get coffee or something when we leave?”

That wasn’t so hard. Or so Alec thinks until he sees Magnus’ expression and feels the hope inside him slowly begin to fade. It’s not a sad expression, nor is it pitiful. But it’s not happy either, it’s not “yes, of course, I’d love to”, it’s-

“I can’t, I’m sorry.”

The rejection hits hard than expected and Alec is suddenly glad that he waited to ask until they were off the ice. Now he just needs to put on his shoes, say goodbye, get home and forget about all of this. 

He can almost hear Jace’s words as if he had witnessed everything that just happened: “Emotions cloud judgement, Alec.” Damn right they do.

He’s so busy mentally scolding himself for getting his hopes up that he almost misses the little “Alexander” that follows Magnus’ reply. _Almost._ He looks up at the other man, to see that the soft smile from earlier is back in place.

“I have to focus on Sunday's competition right now, but if you want, we could go out on Monday?”

Alec can feel the relief washing over him and he smiles like he’s just received the best news in his entire life. And let’s face it, it definitely feels that way too.

“Yeah, of course, Monday’s… Monday’s good.” He sounds a bit breathless, heart hammering in his chest as he answers, but right now, he doesn’t really give a damn.

**Author's Note:**

> i hope you guys liked this!!! if you did you should definitely come yell at me on [tumblr](http://daddariossmile.tumblr.com/)


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